We ALL Hate Elvis Now. (Celtic Get Into Communities Cup Final)

It was the overlooked spat of the weekend. It was well behind John Terry and Anton Ferdinand whose respective clubs asked the authorities to bypass the ‘respect’ team handshakes (probably mindful of what happened with Wayne Bridge and The Dog that is Terry).

Up in Liverpool all eyes were on the Luis Suarez inspired stoking of M62 hatred after the talented (but vulgar tongued) Uruguayan was found guilty of racial abuse towards Patrice Evra. No matter how despicable you find Evra he wasn’t the guilty party in this incident. Liverpool’s handling of the incident resembled David De Gea coming for a corner.

Lennon’s take on Elvis was that: “As a player I couldn’t stand Steven Pressley. None of us at Celtic could.” Take THAT. The game all of a sudden got an edge apart from the obvious Cup Final spot that was up for grabs.

The incident that sparked the ill feeling was in 2006 when our manager was spat on by the vile Rudi Skacel. Elvis said Lennon brought it on himself. A national paper proved that Skacel was vile. Nothing was done about Elvis.

I was hoping that the BBC would focus on the managers when the teams came out the tunnel. I wanted to see a frosty handshake, a vacant stare and the man from Matalan looking like he had a poker up his behind (as ALL say he behaves like he has).They didn’t; though footage beforehand seemed to show Elvis already in his seat well before the teams came up the tunnel.

Lennon didn’t get the chance to as Elvis had already made a complete witches of himself after charging on the park at half time- like a randy sheep dog it must be said – to berate Euan Norris for giving The Hupes a penalty.

I was wondering what he was doing. Why was he so irate? It was the BIGGEST stonewall penalty you will see this season. Darren Dods man handled Thomas Rogne like an Ultimate Cage Fighter trying to get an opponent to taste canvas.

Rogne had already hit the post by then. We had hit post also in the first 16 minutes. We had had a perfectly good goal by Gary Hooper chopped off by then and – to top it all off – WE WERE SHOOTING THE WRONG WAY for a first half at Hampdump.

Elvis moaned like a stand in Maths teacher trying to teach third year algebra about two decision costing his side the game. By doing this he was doing his side a massive disservice.

His side in the tunnel looked like a load of extras for The Inbetweeners (only James Forrest looked like he could get a game for them. Forrest also looked like he had a pair of clown boots on). They didn’t attempt to play like Ayr United who weren’t Honest Men of football and Kilmarnock luggy,Kenny Shiels, moaned about them playing for penalties. This caused Radio Hootsmon to state that no team EVER play for penalties.

I’m sure the La Voila will disgree about that after the 2008 UEFA Cup Semi Final.

Though we ended up hitting the woodwork 3 times, missing two one on ones and looking dangerous from set players WE NEVER ONCE looked fully in control. It’s easier to mention the players that were missing. Double F had another game changing save, Rogne looked ok (though Farid El Allagui looked as far removed as a 22 goal striker as possible), Scott Broon was immense and Hooper did the work of two.

The rest? Meh.

Falkirk on the other hand had a live wire in Kallum Higginbotham that was so good Victor Wanyama was reduced to kicking him in the head during the second half. They scored a cracking goal one that ripped and targeted the weakest in our team.

Wanyama – having a game that I expect 20 year olds in their first season in Scotland to have (two weeks in a row)– gave the ball away and Falkirk exploited the space that the below par Izzy left (according to Lenny he is “just not there and needs a bit time”) to allow Jay Fulton to coolly finish with a calmness that was fitting of his father.

His father was pictured soon afterwards celebrating in his Falkirk bubble jacket. Fulton is the exception to the rule that time isn’t kind to ex-players. In Fultons case life wasn’t kind to him since he was about 14.

I must yous tube Baggio after this.

We had Stokes to thank for returning to haunt his old club (5 goals against Hibs and Falkirk since signing for us) and Elvis to thank for his breakdown ending any hope Falkirk had off beating us allowing us to reach our third consecutive cup final for the first time since 76/77 and 77/78 when – strangely enough – we lost the 2 League Cups and won the Scottish Cup.

Aye, Elvis. His on field rant sent out the wrong message to his players. It showed that he was feeling the pressure. Why blame the ref? Yes, we were creating chances (which I fully expected the better teams to do – just like when we go to Europe the BETTER teams though not playing well always create chances) but his team were going in level and in with a decent chance to cause an upset. Blaming the ref – WRONGLY – says your looking for an excuse and haven’t got the wherewithal, confidence or ability in yourself to capitalize on your opponents failings.

The Lennon quote (similar to the ones in Davie Weir’s autobiography I was told today) gave the game a twist but also gave ammunition for the more fundamentalists in our support to HATE Elvis even more than their usual rhetoric that he played for them therefore shouldn’t have been anywhere near us (it’s also a reason some dislike WGS as he liked an ex). They could read it that the Celtic players didn’t like him.

His time with us was incident free and laced with a few half decent performances. He was nothing more than an indicator of where WGS was taking us and his vision of what he termed a decent player. I had a problem with that and not Elvis as a person our an Ex-R*nger or Jambo.

Problem is Elvis seems to bring stuff on himself.

I remember seeing Elvis and Alex Smith at a Stirling Albion pre-season game. They were playing the home side in a Stirlingshire Cup tie a few days after.

What tickled me was that Elvis son had a Falkirk replica on in the home end (though Stirling and Falkirk are not really rivals they just share a bus route). This was after I had seen him in a Jam Farts replica and also a Celtic replica in the past 2 years.

A psychologist would have a field day with this as would social work.

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CELTIC SHORTS

Thecelticblog MOTM.

The excellent Scott Broonie. He reminded me of a young Paul McStay.

Removed For His Own Good Award

Izzy taking off as his powers seem to become mythical and Victor Wanyama was sent back to defence where his poor passing could cause less damage.

The Illogical Hatred Of SPL/SFL Journeymen Award Of The Week

How could I have one this week? Their keeper done his old time a favour by being a bit slow and their goalscorer reminded me of the talent that was Stevie ‘Baggio’ Fulton. They also attempted to play fitba’.